


The Muggle Way

by BuckyVaRog



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic, Fluffy, M/M, Nail Polish, Non-Binary Teddy, young Teddy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckyVaRog/pseuds/BuckyVaRog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco is always intrigued by muggle things, especially when Teddy bring's over nail polish</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Muggle Way

**Author's Note:**

> This is extremely silly and self indulgent and I only thought of it while painting my own nails. It's my first Harry Potter fic (FINALLY) so I hope it's good enough for the vast and creative fandom. :)

Harry is on the sofa in Grimmauld Place's den, latest issue of _Quidditch Weekly_  spread out before him,waiting for either Draco or Teddy to get there first. He’s had a rather boring day of gardening with Draco at work. He hasn’t had to go in on a Saturday in a very long time, something both of the young men were happy about before being dragged out of bed that morning. After finishing every article at least twice, examining each picture with attentive eyes and tidying up the place for his godchild’s weekend sleep-over Andromeda finally comes through the Floo half-past three in the afternoon, Teddy at her side.

“Harry, how lovely to see you.” Andromeda greets him warmly, pulling him into a tight embrace before Teddy can occupy his arms.

When he pulls back it's with a smile. “Hello, Andromeda, it’s nice to see you too.”

Teddy runs over to Harry, pulling at the leg of his trousers and begging to be held. Harry obliges with an exaggerated grunt, getting a giggle out of Teddy. His godchild goes about playing with his unruly hair and thick-rimmed glasses.

She looks around at the brightly lit living area, trying to peer around a corner from where she stands. “Where’s my nephew, dear?” Teddy’s hair bleeds into a bright blonde, almost white at the mention of their cousin.

“He got called into the Ministry today, unfortunately, so it’s just me and Teddy for-”

He’s interrupted by Draco tripping in through the Floo, hair in disarray and large folders becoming unspelled upon entry. They go spilling across the floor at Andromeda’s feet and Teddy squeals from Harry’s arms.

“Aunt 'Dromeda! I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were here already.” He hurries over to Teddy, ruffling their hair and Harry to give him a peck on the cheek as he spells the folders back into order and under his arm.

To Harry, “I tried to hurry back as soon as possible. Merlin knows why they can’t handle simple cases on their own.” Draco gives his boyfriend a withering look in regards to his fellow Aurors. Back to his aunt, “Let me just put these in the study and Kreacher can get us some tea.”

Upon hearing his name the house elf appears, already ready with tea made.

“I’m sorry, dears, but I can’t stay today. I have a few errands to run and I’m sure Teddy wants to spend time with just the two of you.” She gives them all a charming smile. She pulls a shrunken suitcase out of moleskin around her neck and casts a silent _Engorgio_ before passing it over to Harry. They say their farewells and Andromeda is off, Draco is upstairs in his office, and Harry and Teddy are left to the den.

Harry flops back down into his previous spot but forgoes picking back up his Qudditch magazine for asking what Teddy’s been up to since the last time they saw each other.

“I’ve got nail polish, ‘Arry!” Teddy flops on the soft, emerald rug (Draco’s choice of course, though it does go quite well with the maroon furniture Harry thought fitting) and rummages through their overnight bag. Out of it, they produce light pink, gold, mint green and clear polishes before shoving them into Harry’s lap for him to appraise. “Can you paint my nails?” Teddy gives Harry their most winning smile and props both elbows on Harry’s knee, fingers wiggling in his face.

“Absolutely, let’s sit on the floor though.”

Teddy likes all three of the colours and instructs Harry that after he’s done he’s to put the clear as the topcoat. After Harry gets to painting the first thumb, “How’d you know how to paint nails?”

“’Mione gave these for my birthday,” Harry vaguely remembers that. “And told me what to do. I like doing it myself, but I’m not too good yet.” They say sagely, pulling their foot up to show a rather shoddy excuse for painted toe nails.

“Well, I don’t know how much better I’ll be. Draco’s the artist here.”

“What’s this about me being an artist?” Draco swings around the corner, hand still on the stair’s railing. “What’s going on?” He looks peculiarly down at Harry and Teddy and slowly makes his way into the room.

“Harry’s painting my nails, Draco! Come look,” Teddy says urgently, obviously wanting to jump up and pull their cousin over instead of waiting.

Draco comes and sits down next to Harry, even though _“Malfoys don’t sit on floors, Potter”,_ and peers over as Harry focuses on getting the mint green evenly over Teddy’s middle finger. Draco thinks he hears him mumble something about a second coat.

Draco likes when they have Teddy because, while they might be loud and messy, Teddy is silly and doesn’t flinch away at the Dark Mark like others do and it means Draco gets to learn new muggle things (which he’s been secretly enjoying lately).

Tonight is no exception.

“There’s a spell for that, you know.” Draco pulls his wand out of the trousers he’s wearing and goes to cast it.

“No! I like the muggle way, Draco!”

He purses his lips when Harry chuckles and continues his ministries on the other hand. Draco scowls at the glass, mint coloured bottle, though it hardly resembles how he used to. He picks it up, sniffing at the pungent polish and examines every label on it.

As he sets it down he grabs another and looks closely at the way Harry stokes the brush over each of Teddy’s tiny nails. The colour isn’t solid like it would be when done with magic and it gets on the skin around the nail but Teddy looks to be thoroughly pleased with Harry’s work.

When he’s done Teddy sets to blowing over them, fingers curled into a half fist and bright smile on their face.

“Thanks, ‘Arry,” Harry ruffles their hair, picking himself up off the floor. He pauses when Draco’s hand curls around his ankle. He looks down to his boyfriend, who is still holding the nail polish.

“Do you think you could try it on me?” He looks uncertain, crease between his eyebrows and lips in a firm line.

Harry can’t help his grin, fixing his jumper sleeves up to his elbow as he sits back down.

“You’d look good with the gold, Draco. Or the pink. Both go lovely with your eyes. Grandma says it’s important to make sure things go with your eyes.” Teddy says wisely. Draco merely nods, looking critically between the pink and gold.

“Which one do you think, Harry?”

He weighs both in his hand before looking closely into Draco’s eyes, nearly forgetting they have company.

“I think the pink for sure.”

Draco nods resolutely, sticking his hands out onto Harry’s knee just as Teddy had. His stomach squirms; he feels silly doing this the muggle way. He’s rarely even had them done the magical way. But as soon as Harry starts he realizes he likes how watery it looks, how it solidifies at it dries and turns from an almost translucent to a nice opaque the more layers Harry puts on. When he’s done Draco mimics Teddy and blows on them before realizing he can do a drying charm.

Being the impatient prat he is, he does indeed charm them, casting a discreet one on Teddy because it seems his cousin has gotten preoccupied with the antique wizarding chess set they keep out for guests.

“How do they look?” Draco asks with a smirk. He holds out his hands for Harry to take and examine properly.

Harry kisses his knuckles. “You look gorgeous.” Draco laughs, cheeks turning a nice pink to match the nails he’s now admiring. It’s such a simple thing, just a little paint but he likes it immensely.

“Harry, can we go get ice cream?” Teddy whines from his place in front of the disorderly chess set. Harry concedes that they can but “Don’t tell your grandmother”, to which Teddy enthusiastically agrees and all three of them join arms to side-along Apparate with Harry to a delicious wizarding ice cream shop.

The wix that gives them their ice cream eyes Draco and Teddy’s nails with a discreet smile that gives Draco a ridiculous amount of confidence. They decide to walk around a bit seeing as it’s so warm out and Teddy runs ahead of them a bit to look into shop windows, happily devouring their ice cream cone. As Harry holds Draco’s hand he can’t help but run his thumb over the pink nail, marveling at the synthetic smoothness of it.

“You should paint your nails all the time.” Harry whispers as Teddy babbles on about something Luna told them last week about rampant Wrackspurt in Andromeda’s house.

“You think?” Draco says before taking off the top of his ice cream swirl to hide his pleased grin.

Harry smiles too. “Absolutely.” He gives his boyfriend a quick kiss before turning back to Teddy who nearly drops their ice cream cone (Harry levitates it just in time) onto their daisy-covered jumper.

They mutter a quick thanks before going into great detail about the mysteries of Nargle’s kleptomania.

“Do you think we should tell Luna thanks for Teddy’s vast knowledge of those silly creatures now?”

Harry gives a deep-bellied laugh before nodding his assent, Teddy turning and giving them both a devilish grin, hair flashing from black to platinum blonde in a matter of seconds. Harry’s very glad they’re not in muggle London.


End file.
